A fellow pastor wrote a Facebook response to my column last week, which was entitled, “Our Friends Are Killing Us.” In the column I wrote, “By the same token, how long are Christians today who say they believe in the Second Amendment (and the rest of the Bill of Rights) going to keep sending their tithes and offerings to these churches where the pastors refuse to publicly resist these draconian gun control bills such as were recently introduced by Obama and Feinstein? How long are they going to keep filling the pews of these do-nothing churches? As long as these say-nothing pastors see their pews and offering plates full, don’t expect anything to change.

“I will say it plainly: if you attend a church and didn’t hear your pastor oppose the Obama/Feinstein gun control bills from the pulpit earlier this year, YOU NEED TO GET OUT OF THAT CHURCH. The only thing holding this republic together is the people’s right to keep and bear arms–especially semi-automatic rifles with large-capacity magazines. By refusing to resist evil, your pastor has become an enemy of liberty. Wittingly or not, he is helping to put the chains of slavery around the necks of your children and grandchildren. Why would you stay and support such a pastor and church?”

In response to my column, the pastor posted these remarks on a friend’s Facebook page: “A pastor’s call from God has nothing to do with fighting for any liberty guaranteed by any human government or document. I will fight and die for our Constitution, but that has nothing to do with my call as a pastor, that is my responsibility as an American, not a pastor. Nor is it the responsibility of any pastor in that calling. We are called to only one form of liberty, and it is not so frail as that offered by any human government. The liberty we are called to proclaim is the liberty that was purchased by the shed blood of our Lord and Savior, Christ Jesus, at Calvary, the only liberty which can never be taken nor infringed. While I support the author’s passion and personally speak out defending the second amendment, he is absolutely wrong to accuse men of God of being enemies of liberty simply because they do not engage publicly in the fight for the second amendment. He clearly does not understand the spiritual calling responsibility of a pastor.”

There is a prophetic verse of Scripture that records the conquering Messiah as being asked about the wounds that are in his hands. He responds, “Those with which I was wounded in the house of my friends.” (Zechariah 13:6 KJV) Indeed. It wasn’t the Romans that were fixated with killing Christ; it was the Lord’s own brethren. “He came unto his own, and his own received him not.” (John 1:11 KJV) In like manner, our nation is quickly losing its liberties and Natural rights, not because of our enemies, but because of our so-called friends and brothers.

Edmund Burke summarized it beautifully: “All that is necessary for evil to triumph is for good men to do nothing.” And, for the most part, that is what good men are doing today: nothing!

As regular readers of this column know, I am passionate in my defense of the Natural right of self-defense. I firmly believe that the only thing standing between us and tyranny is the right of the people to keep and bear arms. The freedom of speech, the right to assemble and redress government, the right to be secure in our own homes, the right to a trial by jury, the freedom of worship, etc., all depend on the right of the people to keep and bear arms. When the people of America surrender this right, all of the other rights will quickly disappear.

Furthermore, Daniel Webster was absolutely right when he said, “Hold on, my friends, to the Constitution and to the Republic for which it stands. Miracles do not cluster, and what has happened once in 6,000 years, may not happen again. Hold on to the Constitution, for if the American Constitution should fail, there will be anarchy throughout the world.” Amen!

I realize it is hard for some people to understand (especially those holding political office), but in the United States, “We the People” are the sovereigns. America has no king. In America, “We the People” are Caesar. Someone rightly said, “In America, the people rule; they have the power of the ballot box, the jury box, and the cartridge box.” Amen. And in this land of liberty, nothing is more important than the jury box. The right to a speedy trial by a jury of one’s peers is a benchmark principle of a free land.

Juries have immeasurable power. Not only do they have power over the fate of the accused, they have power over the accusers. No one has more authority than a jury–not even the judge. And without hyperbole I can say that a constitutionally literate, fully informed jury is pretty much all that stands between the ballot box and the cartridge box.

In a letter to Thomas Paine, Thomas Jefferson wrote, “I consider [trial by jury] as the only anchor ever yet imagined by man by which a government can be held to the principles of its constitution.” And two years before the first musket shot was fired that started America’s War for Independence, a Boston lawyer by the name of John Adams said, “Representative government and trial by jury are the heart and lungs of liberty. Without them we have no other fortification against being ridden like horses, fleeced like sheep, worked like cattle, and fed and clothed like swine and hounds.”

Here we go again. We have another mass shooting at yet another “gun-free” zone. Not only was the location a “gun-free” zone, it was located inside the nation’s capital, which has some of the strictest gun-control laws in the entire country.

I thought gun-control laws and “gun-free” zones were supposed to protect people from gun violence. If one listens to the vast majority of talking heads on network and cable news shows, including Piers Morgan and Joe Scarborough, that is exactly what we are led to believe. But in reality, just the opposite is true. “Gun-Free” zones are actually “Free Killing” zones. And in truth, guns don’t kill people; gun-control laws kill people.

This is the second time in recent memory when some wacko shoots up a military installation. The first killer was a Muslim; this one was a Buddhist. He also happened to be a black man and an Obama supporter. This combination must drive the politically-correct mainstream media and the left-wing extremist hate group, the Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC), batty. According to these folks, the only people who commit gun violence are angry Christian white guys. But as most of us know, no race or religion or political affiliation has a monopoly on criminal conduct. Unless it’s those miscreants in Washington, D.C., of course.

After then-Congressman Joe Scarborough convinced me to endorse the neocon Bob Dole for President back in 1996, I vowed to myself that I would never vote for “the lesser of two evils” again. I haven’t; and I won’t.

Almost anytime one hears someone talking about voting for the lesser of two evils, it always means voting for a Republican instead of a third party or independent candidate. The argument is always the same: he or she (the third party candidate) cannot win. Therefore, voting for someone you presume cannot win is “wasting” your vote. I used to believe that, too, but no more.

One could even make the argument that voting for an unprincipled neocon Republican is actually voting for the greater evil, not the lesser. It seems we lose far more liberties under Republican administrations than under Democrat ones. That does not mean that Democrat presidents care more for the Constitution and limited government than Republican presidents. It simply means when Republicans occupy the White House, rank and file conservatives and freedomists go fast asleep. I mean deep sleep. I mean extended hibernation. The two administrations of G.W. Bush are prime examples.

Extreme gun control advocate Eric Holder’s recent rant about the evils of the stand-your-ground laws in Florida and other freedom oriented states is a further indication that he does not believe the citizens should be capable of providing their own defense. Calling stand-your-ground laws “senseless” is indicative of the complete lack of understanding of the human psyche by the progressive left. People are more than simple animals that need to be cared for by the state and controlled so they do not hurt themselves.

It is clear he believes only the state should have access to the deadly force required to stop some harm to the individuals under his power. The problem with this is summarized by the answer one man gave when asked why he carried a .45 – he said because a policeman is too heavy.

Just as the current regime is doing its best to move us into a position where we are completely dependent on the state for our economic well being and health care needs, Holder wants the state to be in charge of protecting the people whose taxes pay his and all the other bureaucratic salaries. Following his plans would also mean the citizens would be in a less advantageous position to resist additional federal intrusions on their lives.

Whether you agree with the jury’s verdict that set George Zimmerman free, there are a few things behind the whole sorry situation that we need to consider. The most obvious is the racial element that those afflicted with the skin color myopia cannot seem to find release from.

Of course Trayvon Martin was a black teenager. Zimmerman, though he had a white man’s name (if there is such a thing – and a Jewish one at that) was Latino. Since describing him as a member of another minority group did not fit the narrative of the regime and the formerly main stream media, he was called a “white Hispanic”, whatever that is. Emphasizing the Jewish name tied into another prejudice among these supposedly unprejudiced elite and elite wannabees. The whole situation was made to order for those looking to add to the story of black oppression while ignoring the scourge of crime visited on our country by a small segment of that population.

Then we have, what is normal in some portions of our society, the propensity of some youth to believe that the appropriate response to an insult or some form of disrespect is to punch someone in the face or worse. Violence is glorified in then entertainment world that caters to this group, as manhood is defined as the ability to inflict pain and suffering on others. This is somewhat a result of rage built up over the years through the leftist propaganda telling them their lives would be fine, if only people who worked hard and played by the rules would be more fair to them and hand out what was earned by the sweat of their brow.

Pressing events in the country, namely, Barack Obama and Dianne Feinstein’s attempted gun confiscation proposals, made it necessary for me to devote my column to specifically addressing that issue. Accordingly, the anniversary of the fall of the Alamo passed without my annual tribute. I will rectify that with today’s column. Plus, the story of the Alamo only augments the need for strict adherence to the Second Amendment and the rejection of Obama and Feinstein’s Machiavellian gun-control measures.

It was on March 6, 1836, that the Alamo fell. For more than 13 days, 186 brave and determined patriots withstood Santa Anna’s seasoned army of over 4,000 troops. To a man, the defenders of that mission fort knew they would never leave those ramparts alive. They had several opportunities to leave and live. Yet, they chose to fight and die. How foolish they must look to this generation of spoiled Americans.

It is difficult to recall that stouthearted men such as Davy Crockett (a nationally known frontiersman and former congressman), Will Travis (only 23 years old with a little baby at home), and Jim Bowie (a wealthy landowner with properties on both sides of the Rio Grande) really existed. These were real men with real dreams and real desires. Real blood flowed through their veins. They loved their families and enjoyed life as much as any of us do. However, there was something different about them. They possessed a commitment to liberty which transcended personal safety and comfort.

A group of influential pastors and ministers recently met with Vice President Joe Biden at the White House where the Vice President called on them to use their influence to help pass President Barack Obama’s new gun control measures. Of course, these measures include the outlawing of all semi-automatic rifles, outlawing high-capacity magazines, and establishing a government-mandated national gun registration policy, which is subtly identified as “Universal Background Checks.” These measures were recently defeated in the US Senate, so now the White House is calling on the clergy to help sell this gun grab to America’s churches.

Here is how Breitbart.com covers the story: “Vice President Joe Biden wants pastors, rabbis and nuns to tell their flocks that enacting gun control is the moral thing to do. But another vote may have to wait until Congress wraps up work on an immigration overhaul.

“Biden met for two-and-a-half hours Monday with more than a dozen leaders from various faith communities –Christian, Jewish, Muslim and Sikh, to name a few. Both Biden and the faith leaders encouraged each other not to give up on what has been an arduous and thus far fruitless effort by Biden and President Barack Obama to pass new gun laws in the wake of December’s schoolhouse shooting in Connecticut.

The lady who contributed credibility to the McCain campaign gave a stem winder of a speech at the recent NRA convention. As with all true conservatives, she proved to be multi-dimensional as she spoke of much more than Second Amendment issues. She went right to the core of who we are as Americans.

And who are we? Are we driven by emotional appeals of the left that result in turning over more control of our lives to those more interested in their own power than our well being? Will we be willing to recognize that hard cases make bad laws? If we haven’t learned that this doesn’t work from the past years, we just haven’t been paying attention.

So, give a listen to the wisdom of this lady who gives the controllers all the respect they deserve and provides us all with a fine example to emulate.

For those who have not seen or heard about Glenn Beck’s NRA speech, this is something worth watching. Not everyone likes him… mostly those who have not really heard him… but have heard what people have had to say about him. He has made some enemies, but so does anyone who reveals truth that people do not want told.

Not since 1775 has a central government in America attempted to disarm its citizens in the way that President Barack Obama and Senator Dianne Feinstein did recently. King George III attempted to disarm the colonists on April 19, 1775, and that attempt ignited America’s War for Independence. Leading the charge to resist the banning and confiscation of their firearms were colonial pastors such as Jonas Clark. Back then, America’s pastors had a thorough comprehension of the Biblical principles of liberty, including the right to keep and bear arms. They taught their congregations these sacred principles with such zeal and persuasion that the attempt by those British troops to march on Lexington and Concord and seize the colonists’ guns was met with the now famous “shot heard ’round the world.” Ever since that historic event, the people’s right to bear arms has been held sacred by the vast majority of Americans–Christian or otherwise. The right to bear arms was understood to be, not just a right, but a God-ordained duty, a long time before it was ever enshrined in the Second Amendment to the US Constitution.

The recent attempt by Barack Obama and Dianne Feinstein to ban semi-automatic rifles, limit magazine capacity, and create universal background checks and gun registration was as close to what old King George attempted to do as this nation has ever seen. Fortunately, public outcry against this egregious gun grab was so unmistakably loud and clear that these gun control bills failed to pass even the Democrat-controlled Senate. Thank God for every person and group around the country that rose up to defeat this piece of modern-day tyranny.

However, if you think that Obama and Feinstein are going to abandon their attempt to outlaw and confiscate your guns, you are sadly mistaken. They will not stop. But the good news is neither will we!

With the Easter message fresh on my mind, I am again reminded of what the Jewish leaders said to Pilate when they tried to coerce him to crucify Jesus. They said, “We have no king but Caesar.” Remember, these were the Jewish Pharisees, scribes, elders, priests, and high priests. They prided themselves in being scholars of the Torah. They believed themselves to be the sole interpreters of the Mosaic Law. Yet, the very First Commandment of the Decalogue handed down to Moses is, “Thou shalt have no other gods before me.” But in order to stay in the good graces of the Roman government, they emphatically proclaimed that they recognized no king but Caesar.

Remember, Caesar insisted that everyone recognize him to be, not only king, but God. To be loyal to Rome, one had to acknowledge the deity of Caesar. One could worship any other god that one wanted to, as long as Caesar was acknowledged as Sovereign. Historians famously say that there were as many gods in Rome as people. Rome prided itself in being religiously pluralistic and tolerant. First Century Christians were not persecuted because they worshipped Jesus; they were persecuted because they refused to worship Caesar; they refused to acknowledge the sovereignty of Caesar. It was for this reason that early Christians were fed to lions and made sport of in the amphitheaters.

In their desire to use the Roman government to advance their own agenda (crucifying Christ and later His disciples and apostles), the Jewish leaders were quite willing to acknowledge the deity and sovereignty of Caesar–even though doing so was a blatant violation of the First Commandment given by Jehovah to Moses. Is it a little more than interesting that after conducting a secret, illegal trial of Jesus and blaspheming God in declaring Caesar king that they immediately afterward sat down to observe the Passover? No wonder Jesus called them “Hypocrites.”

“What does all of this have to do with modern America?” you ask. Everything!

Most of us are taught from childhood to respect and obey the law. On the whole, Americans are law-abiding people. This is only fitting for a nation that was built on the principles of law. Remember, at our core, this is supposed to be a “nation of laws, not men.” This is one reason that our Founding Fathers bequeathed us a republic and not a democracy.

Unfortunately, it has been over one hundred years since America’s teachers (both secular and sacred) have taught the principles of Natural Law. This has created a vast ignorance that has blinded people (especially Christian people it seems) from being able to properly understand, evaluate, and judge the law.

Our Lord plainly said, “The Sabbath (law) was made for man, and not man for the Sabbath (law).” (Mark 2:27 KJV) This was stated in response to the criticism and judgmentalism of the Pharisees against Jesus and His disciples, who had picked and eaten corn on the Sabbath Day.

There is a line from the movie Tombstone (one of my favorite westerns, by the way) in which Val Kilmer’s character, Doc Holliday, says to Wyatt Earp, “My hypocrisy knows no bounds.” (For the record, Kilmer should have won an Oscar for his performance of Doc Holliday in that movie.) Well, my friends, what Doc Holliday said in Tombstone could be said by virtually every prominent gun grabber in the country, because they are the biggest hypocrites the world has ever seen!

Paul Joseph Watson wrote a very enlightening report relative to the way that proponents of gun control are themselves heavily protected BY GUNS. Watson writes:

“The fact that Senator Dianne Feinstein’s gun control bill exempts government officials from the planned semi-auto assault weapons ban illustrates the astounding hypocrisy of gun control advocates who, while working feverishly to disarm the American people, own firearms and surround themselves with armed men.

“As the Washington Times reported last week, ‘Mrs. Feinstein’s measure would exempt more than 2,200 types of hunting and sporting rifles; guns manually operated by bolt, pump, lever or slide action; and WEAPONS USED BY GOVERNMENT OFFICIALS.’ (Emphasis in original)

The Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC) in Montgomery, Alabama, has long been used by the federal government and the national press corps to paint conservative organizations as “extremists,” “anti-government,” “hate groups,” etc. No sooner would the SPLC issue some attack piece in their newsletter and police agencies all over the country would be issuing bulletins to their officers regurgitating what the SPLC had just spewed out. No private organization has this kind of connection to, and influence over, police agencies nationwide without collaboration with the Department of Justice (DOJ) in Washington, D.C. Well, now, we have evidence that such a collaboration exists.

Brietbart.com has just released a report by Judicial Watch confirming that the DOJ and the SPLC are intricately tied to the hip. The report states, “Judicial Watch (JW), a Washington D.C. based non-partisan educational foundation, released some two dozen pages of emails it obtained on Tuesday revealing connections between the Department of Justice Civil Rights and Tax divisions and the Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC).

“According to JW, the e-mails reveal questionable behavior by agency personnel while negotiating for Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC) co-founder Morris Dees to appear as the featured speaker at a July 31, 2012, ‘Diversity Training Event.’ Judicial Watch obtained the records pursuant to a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) submitted to the DOJ on September 10, 2012:

All over America, county sheriffs are standing up and promising to protect their citizens’ right to keep and bear arms. They are pledging that, not only will they not participate in any federal gun ban, but that they will aggressively oppose any federal agencies that attempt to confiscate the semi-automatic rifles from the people of their counties. Many are even saying that they will arrest any federal agent who attempts to confiscate guns in their counties–any federal law requiring it notwithstanding. To see a sample list of the hundreds of sheriffs who are boldly putting themselves on the front lines of protecting the Second Amendment, go to CSPOA.

Now, it is time for pastors to take a stand!

Let me ask readers a question. Those of you who listen to TV and radio pastors, how many have you heard mention even one time the current effort underway in Washington, D.C., to outlaw semi-automatic rifles? How many? One? Two? How many? I dare say that the vast majority of preachers across America have not said one word about it from their pulpits. Not one word!

When the epitaph is written on the tombstone of America, it will read, “Here lies the United States of America: killed by the apathy and indifference of its pastors and churches.”

The local FOX affiliate in Salt Lake City, Utah, has reported that the Utah Sheriff’s Association has written a strongly worded letter to President Barack Obama regarding any potential federal laws that would restrict the citizens of the State of Utah from practicing their Second Amendment rights. The letter was signed by every sheriff in the State of Utah except one. The letter reads in part:

“With the number of mass shootings America has endured, it is easy to demonize firearms; it is also foolish and prejudiced. Firearms are nothing more than instruments, valuable and potentially dangerous, but instruments nonetheless. Malevolent souls, like the criminals who commit mass murders, will always exploit valuable instruments in the pursuit of evil. As professional peace officers, if we understand nothing else, we understand this: lawful violence must sometimes be employed to deter and stop criminal violence. Consequently, the citizenry must continue its ability to keep and bear arms, including arms that adequately protect them from all types of illegality.”

The letter also states: “We respect the Office of the President of the United States of America. But, make no mistake, as the duly-elected sheriffs of our respective counties, we will enforce the rights guaranteed to our citizens by the Constitution. No federal official will be permitted to descend upon our constituents and take from them what the Bill of Rights–in particular Amendment II–has given them. We, like you, swore a solemn oath to protect and defend the Constitution of the United States, and we are prepared to trade our lives for the preservation of its traditional interpretation.”

If Barack Obama and his gaggle of gun grabbers have their way, the American citizenry will have all of their firearms taken away. If their current attempt to outlaw semi-automatic rifles is successful, does anyone think it will stop there? Don’t be naïve! The goal of people like Barack Obama, Dianne Feinstein, Charles Schumer, et al., has always been total gun confiscation. In fact, Senator Feinstein is actually on record as saying so.

According to Infowars.com, “Senator Dianne Feinstein’s ultimate plan has always been to have Mr. and Mrs. America turn in their guns to the government, period. Feinstein’s bill would criminalize millions of Americans and completely eviscerate second amendment rights.

“She tells us a gun ban is about saving the children and reducing crime, but her comments on 60 Minutes in 1995 reveal her true plan is to target law-abiding American gun owners.

The United States seems to be moving steadily to a place in history that few of the citizens want and even fewer see on the horizon. President Obama and his cohorts are taking advantage of the tragedy in Connecticut to push their agenda of disarming America… making it safer for them and more certain that they will be able to impose their socialistic will on the good people of the land.

Reports of executive orders designed to restrict the rights of citizens to defend themselves and their families have riled the freedom loving portion of the population to the point where they are ready to take whatever actions they believe necessary to set things right. On one hand, this is the spirit that formed our nation. Our country was, indeed, formed amidst the violence and bloodshed of a revolt against the most powerful and oppressive monarch in the world.

On the other hand, typical of this administration, they keep pushing us, a little at a time. Poking at us here. Jabbing at us there. It’s almost like they are daring us to strike back… giving them more of a reason to further restrict our ability object, all in the name of peace and safety.

Mass murder via abortion and lone-wolf mass killings with guns are both products of liberal-progressive hedonism.

Bill Ayers wrote in A Strategy To Win, appearing in New Left Notes of September 12, 1969: …we’re also going to make it clear that when a pig gets iced that’s a good thing, and that everyone who considers himself a revolutionary should be armed, should own a gun, should have a gun in his house.

Self-centered mass slaughter of students in Newtown, Connecticut, as well as in movie theaters, shopping malls, and the work place, is a phenomenon unknown before the advent of student radicalism in the 1960s and 1970s. It is an outgrowth of the moral corruption inherent in liberal-progressivism and its vision of social justice.

The overriding characteristic of liberal-progressivism’s conception of social justice is that individuals should not be required to take responsibility for their actions; the socialized political state exists to tell citizens, in every detail, how they should live their lives. Comrades in such a society as it unfolds are not held responsible for anti-social or self-destructive actions. Indeed, in order to destroy Judeo-Christian morality and clear the way for implementation of full socialism, people are encouraged by government, Hollywood, TV, and the mainstream media to reject as oppressive earlier standards of morality and to indulge in unlimited degrees of hedonism.

I candidly confess that I am not very superstitious. I don’t care how many cracks I step on on a sidewalk; I don’t care how many cracked mirrors I look at; I’ve never thrown salt over my shoulder; I’ve never rubbed a red-headed boy’s head for luck; I don’t carry four-leaf clovers or rabbit’s feet in my pocket; and the number 13 doesn’t scare me a bit. All of that notwithstanding, however, I can’t help but believe that 2013 is going to be a rough year.

One thing is certainly clear: the last year that ended in 13 was a horrific year for the people of the United States. In fact, 1913 was one of the worst years of the Twentieth Century. Consider the following:

February 3, 1913

This is the date when the 16th Amendment was ratified, and the direct income tax and IRS were instituted. This was a flagrant repudiation of freedom principles. What began as a temporary measure to support the War of Northern Aggression became a permanent income revenue stream for an unconstitutional–and ever-growing–central government.

The so-called conservative talking head at MSNBC, Joe Scarborough, railed that the Connecticut shootings “must change everything.” Scarborough’s inference is that America needs stricter gun control laws. He said, “They [politicians] must . . . be forced to defend our children,” by enacting more gun control laws. Scarborough went on to rant, “I say good luck to the gun lobbyists, good luck to the Hollywood lawyer who tries to hide behind twisted readings of our Bill of Rights.”

This is the same Joe Scarborough who was elected to Congress in 1994 from the First Congressional District of Florida. He ran as a staunch pro-Second Amendment conservative. He was elected to Congress by staunch Pro-Second Amendment conservatives. Now, Scarborough is joining the chorus of the anti-gun left by adding his voice for more gun control.

At one time, Joe and I were fairly close. I hosted a prominent radio talk show in Joe’s district at the time and did everything I could do to help him win that US House seat. At one time, Joe, and several members of his family, verbalized to me that had it not been for my support, he would not have won his congressional seat. At the time, I was proud to do it.

Joe was a different guy then. That was before he suddenly resigned his seat in Congress, before he landed a gig at MSNBC, and before he became a multimillionaire. Since then, I’ve watched Joe Scarborough morph into something different altogether. I no longer know Joe Scarborough.

The recent murders of twenty innocent children in Newtown, CT has brought to light something that was just thought to be a coincidence just a few months ago. I tend to be skeptical of some conspiracy theories as so few people have enough information and sufficient understanding to put together all the pieces of a complex story. Beyond which, most people only see what they want to see. However, sometimes events come together that defy any conclusion but that something just smells bad and things are not as they seem.

Some eyebrows were raised, but little more was thought of it when it was revealed that Aurora shooter James Holmes’ father was preparing to testify about the corruption in the LIBOR scandal. This information was considered to be just another interesting facet of the case. Now, it appears that the father of Adam Lanza was also in line to testify about the corruption of the banks in the LIBOR scandal. I could not begin to calculate the odds of these two men going against the damage done by currency manipulators having sons doing the same terrible things.

For those not familiar with the LIBOR situation, a brief, incomplete, explanation goes something like this: LIBOR is the London Interbank Offered Rate. It is supposed to be the average rate that banks charge when they lend each other money. Unlike many financial benchmarks which are based on observed transactions, LIBOR is based on self reporting by the banks involved. Herein lies the rub… and the scandal.

The bumper sticker is right: Guns don’t kill people; people kill people. Recent slaughter at the Newtown, CT, elementary school is horrifying, but it’s just a reaffirmation of the potential for evil in human nature. Tighter gun control laws won’t prevent such human depravity. To the contrary, worldwide evidence shows that tighter gun controls both correlate with higher murder rates, and waste public time and money.

Liberal-progressives’ voices are usually the loudest clamoring for tighter procedural regulations over purchase and possession of guns. Liberal-progressives’ approach is always top-down. Regimentation by collectivized government is presumed to be the only source of betterment for people’s lives, as well as the only way to channel human behavior in desired directions.

Welfare-state programs were supposed to eliminate poverty thereby diminishing the incentive for crime. Government’s thousands of regulatory agencies, in liberal-progressive presumption, were to restructure society and alter human nature, as Karl Marx predicted. The grandest example of this misguided and savagely destructive theory was Lenin’s expectation that socialistic revolution and police-state brutality would alter human nature to create New Soviet Man, who would submerge his individuality in the goals of the political state, taking only what he needed, and giving to his maximum ability.

Bob Costas foolish comments on Sunday Night Football should surprise no one. Being upset about them is normal, and our reactions tell us much about ourselves as they do about him. Here is a man who, through his status and income, is pretty much insulated from the realities of life that the rest of us deal with. To make things worse, many “low information” voters take him seriously. Let’s look at this entire situation for a moment.

Jovan Belcher killed his girlfriend, Kasandra Perkins. She was the mother of his child and he shot her to death. In all the reports, this piece of information is glossed over as the chattering class is so upset about the suicide of another NFL player. This is a tragic situation, but no one seems to want to get too involved in the fact that the man was a killer.

Costas and many other members of the formerly mainstream media jumped on this story as one more example of guns being a blight on our society. He quoted at article by Jason Whitlock who would rather blame an inanimate object than a fellow black man for committing the heinous crime. The idea that no access to guns would have prevented this disaster in Kansas City is the height of foolishness.

Many people across the country are rightly concerned as to what another four-year Obama administration is going to accomplish. According to the UK’s Daily Mail Online, “Although America carried President Obama confidently into a second term last Tuesday–not everyone is jumping for joy at the prospect of four more years.

Tens of thousands have put their names to secession petitions in 20 states, asking that they peacefully become independent from the rest of the country.

The documents have been lodged on a government website We The People–and Texas has almost enough people behind its petition to warrant an official White House response.

Along with the Lone Star state, petitions were filed from Alabama, Arkansas, Colorado, Florida, Indiana, Kentucky, Louisiana, Michigan, Mississippi, Missouri, Montana, New Jersey, New York, North Carolina, North Dakota, Oregon, South Carolina and Tennessee. So keen are the folks in Georgia for a separation, that they filed their petition twice.

It was a saddening shock that came over me when I heard about the shootings in the Colorado movie theater. Young people, just out to see a much anticipated movie, being gunned down by some obviously deranged psychopath, just should not happen in our supposedly civilized society. Yet it did. It did in a liberal enclave where they even ban law abiding citizens from carrying legal weapons.

The fantasy that passing a law will prevent criminal activity has, one more time, been debunked by a cruel collision with reality. If this were true, there would be no more robberies, rapes or murders. Even those who get their news from the formerly main stream media know this is not the case. All the law can do is provide penalties for certain behaviors… it is powerless to stop them, just as, so often, the police cannot prevent crime, only investigate what happened and pursue the perpetrators after the fact.

Yet, to the progressive left, these are the only valid protections the citizens should be permitted to enjoy. It is only those who are blind to reality or committed to the statist ideology that believe this is a good idea. Guns were illegal in and around the Aurora, CO theater where James Holmes deadly spray of lead ended the lives of twelve innocent people and injured many more. Perhaps he did not know about the laws against guns in that area. On the other hand, those intent on criminal activity generally do not care about the laws written by men and women in expensive suits hiding in their legislative chambers with armed security.

Last weekend, the Chicago Police Department collaborated with over 20 local churches in a giant effort to encourage Chicagoans “to get guns out of their homes.” WBBM News Radio has the story. “Using the lure of $100 gift cards, the Chicago Police Department is encouraging people to get guns out of their homes and turn them in this Saturday, during the annual gun turn-in program.”

The news report goes on to say, “the Police Department is partnering with 20 churches.

First Deputy Supt. Alfonza Wysinger says anyone who turns in a real gun will get a $100 gift card. Replicas and BB guns are worth $10.

“‘No questions asked,’ Wysinger said. ‘Just show up at the church, and hand over the weapons to the CPD officer that will be there, and get your $100 gift card. So we strongly suggest that people come out that have weapons lying around the house, or weapons, maybe, that they don’t necessarily want in their house. This is a chance to get some money for their weapon, and get another dangerous weapon on the street.’”

The report then lists 23 churches that are identified as participating in the gun turn-in event.

Having just returned from about a road trip of about twenty four hundred miles, much of which took me up and down Interstate 95, I came to the conclusion that the highway could illustrate a lot about our society today. This is the stretch of road immortalized by Jim Croce’s Speedball Tucker with the line, “95 was the route you were on, it was not the speed limit sign.” Some of the observations are not particularly profound, yet we deal with them daily.

The People Set The Pace

This is true whether the speed limit is 50, 55, 60, 65 or 70 mph. When traveling down the highway with many others, there is a tendency to find a pace that people are comfortable with and can negotiate with relative safety and ease. The striking thing about this pace is that the difference between a 50 mph stretch and a 70 mph stretch is much less than the legal restrictions would lead us to believe. I understand that there are civil engineers, traffic studies and the like that governments use to determine what they believe is a safe speed in each setting, but the reality is that the upper limits come much closer to the actual will of the people than tighter restrictions placed on us for our own good. These are just a few of many rules and regulations placed on the people that may occasionally cost us a few dollars, but generally are harmless beyond the irritation value. Other rules and regulations actually run counter to the needs and desires of the populace… yet we still permit them to continue with little or no protest. No, I did not get a ticket along the way, in case the reader was wondering.

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